Tuesday, 17 December 2013

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a charitable trust implementing the mid-day meal programme in nine states covering more than 10,000 Government schools. Being in the service of providing meal to millions of children, this charitable trust is well aware of the hygiene, cleanliness and other food safety measures that need to be followed pre-cooking, cooking and post cooking stages. Reason being this, the charitable trust has been continuously looking to improve its already existing good practices across all its centralised and decentralised kitchens in 20 locations.

In a recent food safety awards event held in Delhi conducted by The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII-Jubilant Bhartia Food & Agriculture Centre of Excellence), The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been conferred with the CII National Award for Food Safety. The kitchen unit of Akshaya Patra Bellary bagged this award for its holistic approach in carrying out the cooking process by efficiently adhering to Food Safety practices and Quality Systems. The CII National Award intends to spread the message of importance of food safety practices and also recognise and appreciate role models for the same. This will help to upgrade the current state of Indian food manufacturers to a world class level.

Shridhar Venkat, Executive Director, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Sriman Suvyakta Narasimha Dasa, Unit Head – Vrindavan and Chetan D, Manager – Operations, Akshaya Patra Bellary represented the charitable trust at the awards event. On being the recipient of the CII National Award, General Manager of Quality and Process Excellence Department, Muralidhar Pundla said, “We are honoured. Akshaya Patra Bellary unit indeed fair well in all the sections and hence the same is seen in the form of this award. But, we are not done yet. We are continuously focussing on proven methodologies like Kaizen, Six Sigma and Continual Improvement Projects.”

This charitable trust has also been honoured with significant awards for its financial transparency, annual reports, programme implementation and innovation by renowned bodies of experts and organisations. The Akshaya Patra awards have been bagged at both national and international platforms.